Friday, March 12, 2010

Anything but Melboring... (another partial re-territorialisation)

Hello all,

...actually, to be honest, I've just kind of had the wind taken out of my posting sails. I just received a DMCA complaint/takedown warning for another post I did on an event in Melbourne that shall remain nameless.

Like all our posts, this had NO link to anything that could be construed as copyright material... I don't understand it... ...this makes me think that the notices must be automated (or maybe even a pssstake or a mssstake), because any human scrutiny of the post in question (or even a non-human such as a lawyer) would have made it abundantly clear that there is nothing even remotely suss about the post... but now in order to counter-claim, I/we have to write (snail mail, not email) or fax google... geez and or gosh... ...rest assured, Chris and I are looking into ways to safeguard the archive online here.

ANYWAY...

...so if you read my Melbourne-related posts, you might be forgiven for thinking that it's all doom, gloom, and no boom boom round these parts. Of course, the intention here is always critical and polemical, a way of provoking some kind of conflictual discussion that, I hope, will lead to a better understanding of where we at and the possibilities that might contain.

But today it's all enthusiasm. It never Waynes, it Pauls, or something. Hot on the heels of an amazing performance by the Dirty Projectors on Tuesday and Tim Hecker last Thursday comes a triple header... Over at Unfortunate Ancestor we have the Optimo boys banging the party for the cooly/munty gen Ys and their allies; somewhere in the bushy bits of Abbotsford, DJ Pete is playing in a warehouse (true story, check facebook, follow the youtube link); and down at Miss Libertines, we have a gig that is both exciting in its lineup and eminently sensible in its price and times.

Shackleton, ladies and gents. And so I cast my votes with them... hope I might see some of you there. I'll be yapping, drinking, and wearing a Stefan Marx t-shirt with some lousy animals on it, such as you might find here in the Winter 2010 collection. Gosh I am such a geekboy/fanboy... but hey, that's why we started the blog, no?

...I've been meaning to have my two cents on the whole spectrum of back-to-front, syncopated, music doing the rounds... it strikes me there is sooo much interesting going on, but also a lot of complacent re-hashing and recombining of old forms, which then gets presented as something 'new'. Of course, novelty is over-rated and sometimes functionality is enough, but.... I want more. On this tip, if you haven't, do yourself a favour and get a lossless, vinyl or CD copy of Shackleton's 3 EPs album. It is worth the effort, really one of the best releases of the past year or so, and very poorly represented by the thin mp3s that were doing the rounds. But more on that soon. In the meantime, maybe see you down the disco.

After the great success of Silvestersausse we have another very enjoyable event coming up for you! The Melbourne vs. Berlin Spasssause!

Berlin and Melbourne, two incredibly awesome cities that share many similarities among their people and way of life, will give each other the honor in a little joint party on both sides of the globe next weekend! While it is still freezing cold in Berlin, the Melbourne Spasssause will try to make use of the last summer days and will take place as an open-air in the park (Location tba). The Berlin party will again be in cozy TheEstablishment in Kreuzberg!

Let's keep up the cultural exchange and the links between our cities and have a party for Melbourne and Berlin !!!

I saw Shackleton at the Civic Underground in Sydney last night. After initial dismay over the seeming limitations of the sound system during the preceding local act (no names) - most evident in the bass response (eg, the act's insistence on the 'wobble' thang was not much more than a distorted, muddled thud), Shackleton took to the stage with no fuss and masterfully worked the system to advantage, without losing any of the dynamic we've come to expect from him. Just stunning!

why are you guys continuing to do with the blogger.com thing instead of hosting your own site? it really isn't that hard (though i use wordpress so i can't comment for sure if it's as easy to do for you guys) or expensive. then you don't have to deal with this nonsense.

the"scene" of dance music that had it's gumption of genuine punters is listless and no where in site, either merged into mega corporate parties or the moronic melbourne crowd of old that is unfriendly arrogant and dead from the waist down.

I am writing as a saturated inner city melbourne dwell and participant of body movement.